Beatles without George Martin

George Martin was greatly responsible for the professionalism in their writing and their sound. And I think that's a great understatement. They all had amazing talent. But, even tale ted people need a push to really excell, and George did that.

They would have been successful. Perhaps even greatly successful. But, they would not have been the time and genre expanding phenoms that they became without him.

 

George Martin the fifth and most important Beatle.

 

What if The Kinks had a real producer during that era?..

without George , it would have been different for The Beatles

 

Show some respect!

 

Of course not. They were virgins.

 

Then she’d have 2 legs up on her husband?

 

Next up: what if the Moody Blues didn't have Tony Clarke?

Will never know the success of The Beatles without Martin (and others), but I got a feeling...

 

before George Martin Brian hit a dead end...so it was nowheresville man for the mop tops...

 

or call him BIG DADDY MARTIN! I like the way that sounds...

 

If they were successful at all, they would have been a very different band.

I think George Martin had even more to do with the early sound than we realize. In the recent Hulu doc, McCartney mentioned almost in passing that Martin basically told them what to sing for the vocal harmonies, playing the parts out for them. Probably just one example of where his musical knowledge helped them get their sound.

 

An essential ingredient in the Beatles so-called magic dust was George Martin.

 

What if we could see air?

 

The Fifth Element to The Fab Four's Magical Magick!

The Beatles = John, Paul, George and Ringo and George.

 

Yes. A dive into Martin's non-Beatles work reveals solid production, but far less magic. The combination of Martin+Beatles was hugely symbiotic.

 

Very important ones though. Jeff Beck re: George Martin working with him in the mid '70s - "He gave me a career"

 

I think the Beatles would probably have had some level of success without Mr Martin, but they might not have reached the heights they did in terms of innovation and world domination.

The ‘what-if’ scenario that really intrigues me though is what they would have come out with if their plan to record what became Revolver at Stax without GM had panned out. I could equally have seen it being great, or a really bad move. I can’t imagine there would have been the overt psychedelic experimentation on Tomorrow Never Knows for example, but what might Stax have done with that groove? Or maybe it would have influenced their songwriting or selection to the extent it would have been a very different selection of songs. A really intriguing alternative reality.

 

What if the Beatles went without John, Paul, George and Ringo? Would they have been as successful? What if they could fly?

 

Agree, and I would add Geoff Emerick and Norman Smith. As important as George Martin was in terms of influence and implementation of ideas, the sound engineers were great. Listening to other stuff from 1962-1969 I must say that the level of production of the Beatles output was often ahead of competition. With a few exceptions maybe, but there was a lot of not so great sounding stuff on the radio.

 

I also think the tandem of George Martin and Paul McCartney (increasingly) was important in terms of working pace, quality and structure.

 

Agreed; when speaking of Martin's impirtance I usually refer to it as "George Martin's team" or something to that effect. Their role was crucial in getting what Martin wanted and in Emerick's case, even beyond that.

 

He is the reason we are discussing The Beatles today.

Without him, we never would've heard of them. Without him, none of what they accomplished would have been possible. As important an ingredient as Lennon or McCartney. End of story.

 

I must admit to being slightly stunned by this succession of Beatles' fans lining up to say they would have been nobodies without George Martin. So much for the talents of "the greatest group in the history of the universe"! I'm not a Beatles fan and I completely disagree with them over George Martin's importance, by the way.

 

Anyone on dating apps should garner this knowledge…
don’t swipe right, strum an instrument instead ! ; )

 

Yes we would

 

I think they would have made it to some degree or another but it’s difficult to gauge without Martin in the “stew”. They did write great songs but I feel his support, both musical and technical encouraged the songs and the stylistic progression there of. I still say that his involvement played a huge role in their ongoing historic significance in terms of how their music translated into tape and even inspiring its creation. My personal opinion is that great as a band may be, the importance of a great record producing team cannot be overstated in bringing that band to the world. Imagine Beggars Banquet being produced by Andrew Loog Oldhsm; I’d rather not.